Another private jet whined overhead as I crossed the frozen lake into St Moritz. This was only a few weeks back, "pre-volcano", but as a second plume of silicate dust from Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull crater keeps many European planes grounded, it already seems a long time ago.

I was in St Moritz after riding the famous Glacier Express railway across the top of the Alps from Zermatt, an eight-hour journey through scandalously spectacular scenery. During the trip I'd passed the valley in which Europe's biggest glacier, the monstrous Aletsch, edges it's way downhill. This 27bn-tonne river of ice is, like most glaciers, shrinking as a result of global warming.

I once went to the, perhaps excessive, length of circumnavigating the world without flying as part of my own personal exploration of the relationship between travel, carbon emissions and climate change. The retreat of Aletsch was a stark reminder of that journey and the motivations behind it.

It's almost two years to the day since I returned from that trip and during the intervening period I've become a passionate advocate of overland travel – even in the absence of belching volcanoes. Its not just for eco-geek reasons of carbon-emission efficiency, although if you need a justification for taking the train then I'd argue that's a pretty good one. I love the simple pleasures that overland forms of travel like rail can bring; the rhythmic rumble of the wheels beneath you and the rolling vista of ever-changing views outside your window to name but two. It's intriguing that many of the stranded British passengers returning to the UK have mentioned the "adventure", "challenge" and surprising joys of their return trips. "There was so much to see!" exclaimed one 81-year-old woman whose son had just driven her back from Switzerland.

In recent years it has seemed that the unfettered growth of aviation would likely continue unchecked, despite high-profile politicking and protests around Heathrow's proposed third runway. Campaign groups, like Plane Stupid with their polar bears plunging from the sky, and Greenpeace's ingenious Airplot sit in stark contrast to the slightly disingenuous findings of the Government's own Committee on Climate Change. Their report at the tail-end of 2009 loudly trumpeted a vibrant future of aviation growth. Provided we decarbonise the rest of the economy by 90%.

Lured by ludicrously low prices we Brits rapidly developed a dependency on cheap flights. Then the banks imploded, recession bit and the pound plummeted against the euro. These circumstances gave birth last year to "staycation", when many of us swapped a continental twang for a UK holiday. Seventeen million fewer people took a flight last year, a drop of 7% on 2008 and the lowest level of aviation in six years. In the context of an annual 218,126,313 flying passengers, this isn't exactly the end of the jet-age of travel, but it's a definite shift and we're perhaps seeing the birth of a new trend – the "traincation".

Blended words like staycation and traincation can be rather clunky and inelegant. I can vouch for this personally after my own ill-fated attempts to launch "frucool" (frugal + cool) on a largely uninterested world. One online wit suggested it was something only a "twunt" would come up with. But with or without the recent intervention from Eyjafjallajökull, there's real substance behind the emerging traincation trend, which is enough to warm the cockles of slow-travelling hearts everywhere.

A survey by green lifestyle charity Global Cool recently found that just over half of Britons are now considering swapping planes for trains – a real milestone given our apparent addiction to flying. And it's not difficult to identify some of the factors driving this change. Like the increasing amount of time we're expected to loiter in airport terminals, or the latest airport security scanners that leave little to the furtive imagination, and for many are an invasion of privacy too far.

Perhaps it's the cramped seat, poor food and mercenary tactics of the budget carriers with their convoluted rafts of hidden costs, luggage restrictions and uncanny ability to fly you only vaguely near your ultimate destination? It might not be the end of the affair, but the honeymoon period may well be coming to an end for us and budget airlines.

There are sticking points, of course, namely cost and convenience. If the emerging traincation trend is to have any momentum and longevity then these will have to improve. At present it is usually more expensive and more challenging to book continental train travel than bagging a seat on a short-haul flight. But change is afoot. The travelling public are waking up to the fact that city centre to city centre travel by rail can be broadly comparable in cost to a superficially cheap flight that then has city to airport travel at either end, taxes, luggage fees and a miscellany of other incremental fees bolted on.

Plus, the opening of new high-speed rail links, like the Brussels-Amsterdam line, means that the difference in journey time between train and plane for many popular destinations is narrowing. Booking is still a struggle, but websites like seat61.com and loco2.co.uk are demystifying these arcane processes, and simple "one-click" continental train booking can't be too far away.

Perhaps cost, convenience and craters aren't the only drivers for this shift. Desire for comfort, and concern about climate change, might also be influencing travel behaviour. Global Cool's survey also revealed that 83% of travellers want their journeys to be greener, and there's no argument that the extra legroom and ability to move around freely on trains is a key selling point.

It works for me. As I whizzed my way smoothly to Switzerland and back and crossed the Alps courtesy of Eurostar, SNCF and the Glacier Express to St Moritz I was convinced the traincation is the way forward. Nibbling on a smoked salmon blini and sipping champagne as the magnificent mountain panoramas unfurled around me, I wondered if the denizens of St Moritz with their private jets and bejewelled canines knew what they were missing. Who needs a volcano to experience the joys of slow?